Police radio shows delays in shooting response

DENVER (AP) -- As police officers pleaded for all available medics to converge on the scene of the Colorado movie theater massacre, a two-man ambulance crew and their rig were idling just a few miles away.

While some ambulances were quickly called to duty, it took dispatchers more than 20 minutes into the crisis to ask the Cunningham Fire Protection District. Other nearby agencies got the call for aid even later.

By the time the Cunningham crew arrived, it was more than a half hour after authorities got first word that a gunman had opened fire in the theater.

Radio traffic showed emergency personnel struggling to grasp both the scope of the tragedy and mobilize a response. It's not clear whether a faster response would have saved more lives.

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